The White House continues to welcome play dates with Muslim Brotherhood officers and sympathizers. That hasn’t gone unnoticed among protesters in Cairo. Thousands of anti-Morsi protesters are in Tahrir Square ahead of major demonstrations planned this weekend on the anniversary of the Egyptian president’s inauguration. And they’re not happy with President Obama.

Egypt appears to be on the brink of chaos this week but the best advice America’s ambassador has for an embattled religious minority in the world’s most populous country is to stay home. The report about the visit of Ambassador Anne Patterson to Coptic Pope Tawadros II came from an Egyptian paper but is spreading rapidly around the Internet and being cited as an example of the tacit support the United States continues to show for the government of President Mohamad Morsi even as the country starts to fall apart But with a mass protest scheduled for Sunday — the event Ambassador Patterson wanted Copts to stay away from — the president’s attitude toward the demonstrations that are shaking Morsi’s grip on power is more than a matter of curiosity.